Archive

Up to 40 Afghan migrants have died inside Iran after illegally crossing the border during a severe cold snap, sources in western Afghanistan told Afghanistan International.

As the Middle East enters the final weeks of 2025, the aftershocks of two years of regional war since October 7, 2023 are yielding to a quieter, consequential realignment of regional power.

Former Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi suggested Iran and the United States could resume talks by changing the framing of negotiations to a shared goal that Tehran should not have nuclear weapons.

Air pollution returned to Iran’s capital and several other cities, pushing air quality back into unhealthy levels for vulnerable groups and prompting renewed health warnings, according to official data released on Friday.

Sweden has summoned Iran’s ambassador after receiving unconfirmed information that a Swedish citizen detained in Iran on espionage charges may have been sentenced to death, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said on Friday.

At least 17 Kurdish citizens have been detained in recent days in multiple Iranian cities, according to a Kurdish human rights group, amid what activists describe as increased security pressure on minorities and civil activists.

Iran explored advanced nuclear weapon concepts based on pure fusion before its war with Israel, an Israeli media report said, describing research into a theoretical approach that does not require uranium or plutonium.

Soaring costs have pushed many Iranian families to buy nuts and sweets on credit ahead of Yalda Night, the traditional winter celebration marking the longest night of the year, as sharp price increases squeeze household budgets in the final days of December.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he hopes there will be no war with Iran and urged Tehran to reconsider its nuclear ambitions, Israeli media outlet Ynet reported early Friday.

Israeli authorities arrested a Russian citizen working in Israel on suspicion of carrying out espionage tasks for Iranian intelligence, including photographing ships and infrastructure at Israeli ports, Israeli media reported on Friday.

China’s recent backing of the United Arab Emirates’ claims over three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf has triggered unusually sharp public criticism of Beijing among Tehran’s hardline supporters.

As Azerbaijan and other Caspian Sea states deepen partnerships with Western energy companies to extract more oil and gas from aging offshore fields, Iran stands apart as the only Caspian littoral country that produces no hydrocarbons from the sea at all.

Rights abuses against women political prisoners in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison have intensified since a 12-day war with Israel, an informed source told Iran International, with an inmate's suicide attempt highlighting mounting pressure in the ward.

A death row prisoner accused by Tehran of spying for Israel has been transferred to solitary confinement, a step that typically precedes executions, informed sources told Iran International.

Satellite imagery shows new activity at an Iranian uranium enrichment facility damaged during a brief June war, a US-based think tank said on Thursday, raising the possibility that Iran is seeking to recover stocks of its highly enriched uranium.

Faced with economic crisis, social defiance and regional strain, Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei continues to invoke earlier moments of “glory,” treating defeat and mismanagement as moral triumphs rather than political failures.

The US Treasury on Thursday announced new sanctions targeting 29 vessels and multiple shipping firms accused of helping Iran evade oil sanctions, intensifying pressure on what Washington describes as Tehran’s shadow fleet.

A Jewish woman who says she spent years engaging with senior figures linked to Iran’s ruling establishment has shared what she describes as insider accounts from those interactions in a sit-down interview with Iran International.

Iranian authorities have stepped up pressure on civil society, media and political activists in several cities in an apparent effort to deter any protests over higher fuel prices, according to people familiar with the matter.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has acknowledged that Israel held a missile advantage during the June conflict between the two foes, while reaffirming Tehran’s commitment to maintaining and expanding its missile program.

Iran is not a war-torn country, yet four decades of Islamic Republic rule have driven mass emigration. UN data show over five million registered refugees or asylum seekers since 1980, with millions more leaving legally – about one in every 15 Iranians now living abroad.